- PepsiCo will mentor refugee women in the Netherlands as part of a mentorship initiative launched by the Tent Partnership for Refugees
- By partnering up with the Refugee Talent Hub in the Netherlands, PepsiCo will be actively involved in closing the gap between refugees and the Dutch labor market.
- As a first step, the Refugee Talent Hub, will implement the PepsiCo Refugee Women Mentorship Initiative in the Netherlands.
- Furthermore, PepsiCo will explore further collaboration with Refugee Talent Hub, to support the development of and career opportunities for people with a refugee background. PepsiCo will start offering internship opportunities, whereafter
concrete job opportunities at production and HQ level will be inventorised.
- Together, PepsiCo and the Refugee Talent Hub will foster a culture of diversity, inclusion and engagement by inviting associates from PepsiCo to participate in training and workshops.
Utrecht, 23 February 2022
PepsiCo announces today that it will mentor 50 refugee women over three years in the Netherlands, Belgium and Denmark as part of a mentorship initiative launched by the Tent Partnership for Refugees and Catalyst during the virtual European Business Summit on Refugee Women.
PepsiCo in North West Europe joins twenty-four other companies across Europe - including Accenture, adidas, BNP Paribas, and Sodexo that are taking part in this initiative. Together, the companies have collectively pledged to mentor around 1,200 refugee
women over the next three years.
The professional mentorship initiative aims to better prepare refugee women - who have traditionally experienced much lower levels of employment compared to refugee men, especially in the first few years after arrival, as well as native-born women - to enter the workforce or advance in their careers. Mentors at PepsiCo in North West Europe will prepare refugee women to enter the job market by helping them with their CVs, advising on interview etiquette, as well as expanding their professional
networks. The initiative will also seek to include refugee women from Afghanistan who have been and will be resettled in Europe.
In the Netherlands, the mentorship initiative launched last week during with the mentors and mentees met for the first time.
Hamdi Ulukaya, Founder and CEO of Chobani - a major U.S. food company - and Founder of Tent, said: “A decent job is one of the most important things to help refugees better integrate in their new communities -- but refugee women
are doubly discriminated against and face so many barriers to employment. I am very proud of the companies stepping up today pledging to mentor this population. This is the right thing and the smart thing to do -- with Europe facing labour shortages
across many sectors, it makes good business sense for companies to prepare new, hard-working, and resilient talent to enter the workforce.”
To further strengthen this Tent Partnership for Refugees, PepsiCo will also partner with the Refugee Talent Hub to expand its efforts towards empowering refugees and to help them increase their job prospects.
The focus of this partnership is to provide opportunity to refugees for PepsiCo internships, job openings and expanding the professional network, find common grounds and mutual understanding. Together, we will foster a community culture of diversity,
inclusion and engagement by inviting associates to participate in trainings and workshops. Moreover, as part of this partnership PepsiCo will actively participate in the knowledge sharing with other corporate & social partners of the Refugee Talent
Hub.
Wilma Roozenboom, Director of the Refugee Talent Hub, explains: “The gap between refugee women and the European labor market is huge - and bigger than for men. Labor participation of refugee women is 17 percent point lower when
compared to refugee men. We are delighted to join forces with PepsiCo in bridging this gap in The Netherlands.”
Hanneke van Aert, HR Director North West Europe, said: “I’m proud to see that we are working to improve the lives and livelihoods of refugees by partnering with the Refugee Talent Hub and the Tent Partnership for Refugees
to support their professional development. As people and as an organization, we want to make a difference because we want to ensure we’re inclusive of all talent. Moreover, building an inclusive society means we learn from each other and we
believe our employees can learn from this experience and from people with diverse backgrounds.”
ENDS
For media enquiries, please contact:
PepsiCo
Eva Hagenmeyer
Communication Manager North West Europe
eva.hagenmeyer@pepsico.com
Refugee Talent Hub
Wilma Roozenboom
Director Refugee Talent Hub
wilma.roozenboom@refugeetalenthub.com
Tent Partnership for Refugees
Hélène van Melle
Associate Director for Global Partnerships – Lead for Europe
Helene@tent.org
About PepsiCo
PepsiCo products are enjoyed by consumers more than one billion times a day in more than 200 countries and territories around the world. PepsiCo generated $70 billion in net revenue in 2020, driven by a complementary beverage and convenient foods portfolio
that includes Lays, Doritos, Cheetos, Gatorade, Pepsi-Cola, Mountain Dew, Quaker, and SodaStream. PepsiCo's product portfolio includes a wide range of enjoyable foods and beverages, including many iconic brands that generate more than $1 billion each
in estimated annual retail sales.
Guiding PepsiCo is our vision to Be the Global Leader in Beverages and Convenient Foods by Winning with PepsiCo Positive (pep+). pep+ is our strategic end-to-end transformation that puts sustainability at the center of how we will create value and growth
by operating within planetary boundaries and inspiring positive change for planet and people. For more information, visit www.pepsico.com and www.pepsico.nl.
About the Tent Partnership for Refugees
With more and more refugees displaced for longer periods of time, businesses have a critical role to play in helping refugees integrate economically in their new host communities. The Tent Partnership for Refugees mobilises the global business community
to improve the lives and livelihoods of more than 30 million refugees who have been forcibly displaced from their home countries. Founded by Chobani’s founder and CEO Hamdi Ulukaya in 2016, we are a network of over 200 major companies committed
to including refugees. Tent believes that companies can most sustainably support refugees by leveraging their core business operations – by engaging refugees as potential employees, entrepreneurs, and consumers. The full list of Tent members
can be found here. Find out more at www.tent.org.
About Catalyst
Catalyst is a global nonprofit supported by many of the world’s most powerful CEOs and leading companies to help build workplaces that work for women. Founded in 1962, Catalyst drives change with preeminent thought leadership, actionable solutions
and a galvanised community of multinational corporations to accelerate and advance women into leadership — because progress for women is progress for everyone. Find out more at www.catalyst.org.
About Refugee Talent Hub
The Refugee Talent Hub is an employer’s initiative aiming to bridge the gap between refugees and the Dutch labor market. Founded by Accenture in 2016, the organization has grown into an independent foundation with a large network of committed employers
and refugee talents. The Refugee Talent Hub is the preferred implementing partner of Tent Partnership for Refugees in the Netherlands.
Find out more at: www.refugeetalenthub.com
